A Foundation For Motivation: The 'Motivation Manifesto,' By Brendon Burchard

Down to the foundation of motivation—most people have the equation backwards, Buchard maintains. “People think if I could only get motivated, then I’ll act,” he observes. “Nope. In actuality it’s the opposite.”

We must learn to stop reacting to the phones, the texts, the inbox and the Internet as opposed to focusing our ambitions and actions. Yes, we have ambitions but we don’t believe they can really happen. We encounter fear. “We say to ourselves, ‘That would be nice, but I don’t believe I can have that or do that or be that,’” Burchard says. “So we stop. We wake up with motivation on Monday and by Wednesday it’s gone.”

As an interesting side note–in my interview a year ago with Noah Glass, the founder of the OLO app for online ordering he noted that restaurant orders follow this trending pattern as well: “The healthiest food choices are popular on Monday and Tuesdays. Flavorful food dominates Wednesdays and Thursdays. By Friday and Saturday, it’s burgers, fries, pizza—the restraint is over and anything goes.”

So what’s the answer? According to Burchard, ambition and expectancy are the spark that begins motivation. Then attention and effort sustain it. Together, these are the primary drivers of the personal and professional nirvana for executives and entrepreneurs: Sustained motivation.

Finally, we need to achieve the amplification of motivation: the attitude and environment that keeps motivation from slipping away. We need to avoid the pools of pessimism—the negative people and environments that surround us. By mastering these arenas we regain our sense of freedom, individuality and spontenaity. We take back our control.

“Amplification is the way we generate and command motivation every day,” Burchard says. “That’s when we have self mastery. We have the ability to call any emotion into play, at will, as opposed to waking up and observing passively, ‘I haven’t got any motivation today.’”

And how do you accomplish that as an entrepreneur? Perhaps I will cover the nine declarations Burchard espouses in another article. Or you could download or order the Manifesto